U.S. Small Business Optimism Index Highest since 2004!

With the NFIB optimism index the highest since 2004, will this renewed optimism translate into increased business for the MSP / VAR Community?

The National Federation of Independent Businesses (www.nfib.com) index jumped 7.4 points in December 2016 to 105.8 points. With the NFIB representing over 350,000 member companies across all industries, and their membership employing over 50% of private sector employees, this index warrants serious consideration. The Dec. 2016 level is the highest level since the end of 2004, when the value was 98.4.

If the general business community is gaining confidence and expanding, shouldn’t that optimism translate into increased business opportunity for the VAR and MSP Community? Many of our clients are already focused on specific business tasks to take advantage of this increased optimism.

So……….what are these companies focusing on? One of the interesting benefits of serving a national client base, is the opportunity to aggregate information obtained from our diverse client base. Our intelligence, sourced from a wide array of CEOs, business owners and senior leadership, points us towards these 4 key focus areas…

Continue to provide the absolute best service possible – Trends aside, providing top quality customer service leads the list when developing a competitive advantage. Always! Poor customer service is by far and away the number one reason customers change vendors. Retain and grow the business by increasing outreach efforts, work to improve trouble ticket responsiveness, and education at the end user level.

Develop a Modern Marketing Strategy – Keep your sales and marketing plans current, and up to date. “Yesterday’s approach” may have worked well and is a good foundation, but do not take past success for granted. Websites should be content current and as mobile friendly as possible. A 2015 published study by Morgan Stanley, shows 2014 as the inflection point when the number of global users of mobile devices exceed the number of global users utilizing desktop devices for internet access and research.

Manage and Invest in Your Employees – Looking to achieve maximum productivity? Paying for appropriate industry certifications, and encouraging self-education with tuition reimbursement were at the top of the list for ways owners attempt to improve the quality of their technical staff and delivery capabilities.

Keep Internal Operations Running Effectively and Efficiently – As unnecessary as it may appear to even say this, inefficient or incomplete use of your chosen PSA (such as Autotask, ConnectWise or others) is the most common culprit cited for impacting cash flow.

VAR Staffing hopes 2017 is a great year for your company. If increasing your staff or upgrading the quality of technical resources is on your strategic list of goals to accomplish, VAR Staffing welcomes the opportunity to discuss your needs. Call us at 972-996-0966.